Penguin Press nets Thunberg's speeches and family memoir

Penguin Press will publish the collected speeches of 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg, No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference as well as a family memoir, Scenes from the Heart.

No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference is a selection of 11 of the Swedish schoolgirl’s key speeches, made between September last year to last month. The first was given three weeks after her first climate strike in August 2018, the most recent in the UK Parliament on 23rd April. “Delivered to world leaders and street activists, at TED and the UN climate talks in Poland, at Davos and European Parliaments, her message becomes ever more emboldened as her impact grows,” Penguin Books said. The 80-page book will be published on 6th June, retailing at £2.99.

Before publishing director Helen Conford left Penguin Press for Profile Books, she acquired UK and Commonwealth rights to Scenes from the Heart from Sigrid Stavnem at Politikens. Commissioning editor Chloe Currens subsequently decided to publish the speeches as a separate volume, with the memoir to follow later in 2019.

Later this year, Penguin will also publish Thunberg’s family story Scenes from the Heart after winning it at auction, the Guardian said. It was written by her mother, Swedish opera singer Malena Ernman, together with her sister Beate Ernman, her father Svante Thunberg and with Greta herself. All of the family’s earnings from both books will be donated to charity.

“At just 16 years old, a child is changing the way we think about the future of humanity,” the Penguin Random House imprint said. “The most powerful adults on the planet are taking note. In just six months, this extraordinary schoolgirl has become the voice of a generation facing the full force of climate catastrophe. It is a unique voice, quiet, angry and unafraid, speaking truth to power. Across the world, she has delivered some of the most powerful, detailed speeches yet made by anyone about our future. She has written them herself.”

Chloe Currens, commissioning editor, Penguin Press said of the deal: “Greta has already galvanised millions of children and adults around the world, and she’s only just getting started. She calls for change at the highest level—and because her message is so urgent, and so essential, we are working to make it available to as many readers as we can, as quickly as we possibly can. This little book will document an extraordinary, unprecedented moment in our history, and invite you to join in the fight for climate justice: to wake up, spread the word, and make a difference.”

Greta Thunberg’s courage and commitment have been endorsed by the Pope and by many in power, including Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Naomi Klein, Margaret Atwood and Sir David Attenborough.

Thunberg is seen as the icon of a global movement around climate change. Around 1.4 million people in over 100 countries took part in the school climate strikes in March, and the ‘Fridays For Future’ action continues weekly in countries around the world.

A Nobel Prize nominee, she was also chosen as TIME’s '25 Most Influential Teenagers in the World' and has won the prestigious Prix Liberté. Coverage of her speeches extends across national and international print and broadcast media.